Frances Brooke
| death_date = }} Frances Brooke (12 January 1724 - 23 January 1789) was an English poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and translator, the author of the first novel written in Canada. Life Brooke was born Frances Moore in Claypole, Lincolnshire, the daughter of a clergyman. By the late 1740s, she had moved to London, where she embarked on her career as a poet and playwright. Under the pseudonym of Mary Singleton, Spinster, she also edited 37 issues of her own weekly periodical, Old Maid (1755–1756). In 1756 she married Rev. Dr. John Brooke, rector of Colney, Norfolk. The following year he left for Canada as a military chaplain while his wife remained in England. In 1763 she wrote her first novel, The History of Lady Julia Mandeville. In the same year Brooke sailed to Quebec, Canada to join her husband, who was chaplain to the British garrison there. In autumn 1768 the Brookes returned to London, where she continued her career. Frances Brooke was well-known in London's literary and theatrical communities. From 1773 to 1778 she was co-manager of the Haymarket Opera House. In 1788 she retired to live with her son in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, where she died the following year.Frances Brooke (1724-1789), English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, May 3, 2016. Writing In 1769 she published The History of Emily Montague, the first novel written in Canada. This brief stint in North America has caused some critics to label her "the first novelist in North America." Evidence of Brooke's wisdom and experience of life and its vicissitudes is apparent in her writing. One exemplary observation reflects that "It is a painful consideration, my dear, that the happiness or misery of our lives are generally determined before we are proper judges of either." Also in 1769, The History of Emily Montague was used in the earliest Oxford English Dictionary citation for the hyperbolic or figurative sense of "literally"; the sentence from the novel used was, "He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies." This citation was also used in the OED's 2011 revision. Recognition Venusian crater In 1985, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature honoured Frances Moore Brooke by naming a crater after her on the surface of the planet Venus. Brooke Crater is located at latitude 48.4° north, longitude 296.6° west, northeast of Guinevere Planitia. Its diameter is approximately 22.9 km. Publications Poetry and songs *''Virginia: A tragedy; with odes, pastorals, and translations''. London: privately published, 1756. *''The Songs, Duets, and Choruses, in 'Rosina' and 'The Poor Soldier' (with Charles O'Keefe). Hull, UK: George Fennaby, 1786. *''Airs, Songs, Duetts, Trios and Chorusses, in 'Marian'. London: T. Cadell, 1788. Plays *''Virginia: A tragedy; with odes, pastorals, and translations''. London: privately published, 1756. *''The Siege of Sinopoe: A tragedy''. London: T. Cadell, 1781. *''Rosina: A comic opera, in two acts''. London: T. Cadell, 1783. *''Marian: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts''. London: Longman & Broderip, 1788; London: A. Strahan, for T.N. Longman & O. Rees, 1800. Novels *''The History of Lady Julia Mandeville''. (2 volumes), London: R. & J. Dodsley, 1763.***(edited by Enid Karafili Steiner). London & Brookfield, VT: Pickering & Chatto, 2013. *''The History of Emily Montague''. (4 volumes), London: Robert Dodsley, 1766; London: J. Dodsley, 1769. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV **(edited by Mary Jane Edwards). Ottawa, ON: Carleton Library, 1985. *''The Excursion''. (2 volumes), London: T. Cadell, 1777 **(edited by Paula R. Backscheider & Hope D. Cotton). Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1997. *''The History of Charles Mandeville: A sequel to Lady Julie'.'' (2 volumes), London: W. Lane, 1790. *''Manners: A novel''. London: Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, 1817; New York: W.B. Gilley, 1818. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III Translated *Marie Jeanne Riccoboni, Letters from Juliet Lady Catesby to Her Friend, Lady Henrietta Campley. London: R. & J. Dodsley, 1760 **also published in Translations and Continuations: Riccoboni and Brooke, Graffigny and Roberts (edited by Marijn S. Kaplan). London & Brookfield, VT: Pickering & Chatto, 2011. Edited *''The Old Maid'' (literary magaazine). London: 1755-1756; London: Andrew Millar, 1764. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Frances Brooke, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, May 3, 2016. References *'Brooke, Frances' at The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (by Mary Jane Edwards) Note: most entries below are from the Selected bibliography: Frances Moore Brooke by Jessica Smith and Paula Backscheider, which additionally offers references to editions of Frances Brooke's works as well as full-length critical monographs and biographical studies of the author. *Raeleen Chai-Elsholz, "Textual Allusions and Narrative Voice in the Lettres de Milady Juliette Catesby and its English Translation Frances Moore Brooke", in La traduction du discours amoureux (1660–1830), eds. Annie Cointre, Florence Lautel-Ribstein, Annie Rivara (Metz: CETT, 2006). *Juliet McMaster, "[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/eighteenth_century_fiction/summary/v011/11.3.mcmaster.html Young Jane Austen and the First Canadian Novel: From Emily Montague to 'Amelia Webster' and Love and Freindship]", Eighteenth-Century Fiction 11 (April 1999): 339- 46. *Robert James Merrett, "Signs of Nationalism in The History of Emily Montague, Canadians of Old and the Imperialist: Cultural Displacement and the Semiotics of Wine", Semiotic Inquiry 14 (1994): 235–50. *Robin Howells, "Dialogism in Canada's First Novel: The History of Emily Montague", Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 20 (1993): 437–50. *Dermot McCarthy, "Sisters Under the Mink: The Correspondent Fear in The History of Emily Montague", Essays on Canadian Writing 51–52 (Winter-Spring 1993): 340–57. *Jane Sellwood, "'A Little Acid Is Absolutely Necessary': Narrative as Coquette in Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague", Canadian Literature 136 (1993): 60–79. *Barbara M. Benedict, "The Margins of Sentiment: Nature, Letter, and Law in Frances Brooke's Epistolary Novels," ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 23, no. 3 (July 1992): 7–25. *Robert Merrett, "The Politics of Romance in The History of Emily Montague ", Canadian Literature 133 (Summer 1992): 92–108. *Frances Teague, "Frances Brooke's Imagined Epistles", Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 304 (1992): 711–12. *K.J.H. Berland, "A Tax on Old Maids and Bachelors: Frances Brooke's Old Maid", Eighteenth-Century Women and Arts, ed. Frederick Keener and Susan Lorsch (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988), 29–35. *Lorraine McMullen, "Frances Brooke's Old Maid: New Ideas in Entertaining Form", Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century ''(1989) 669-70. *Barbara Godard, "Listening for the Silence: Native Women's Traditional Narratives", ''The Native in Literature, ed. Thomas King, Cheryl Calver, and Helen Hoy (Toronto: ECW Press, 1987), 133–58. *K.J.H. Berland, "The True Epicurean Philosopher: Some Influences on Frances Brooke's History of Emily Montague", Dalhousie Review 66 (1986): 286–300. *Ann Edwards Boutelle, "Frances Brooke's Emily Montague (1769): Canada and Woman's Rights", Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12 (1986): 7–16. *Katherine M. Rogers, "Dreams and Nightmares: Male Characters in the Feminine Novel of the Eighteenth Century", Men by Women, ed. Janet Todd, Women in Literature, n.s. 2 (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1982), 9–24. *Lorraine McMullen, "Double Image: Frances Brooke's Women Characters", World Literature Written in English 21, no. 2 (Summer 1982): 356–63. *Mary Jane Edwards, "Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague: A Biographical Context", English Studies in Canada 7, no. 2 (Summer 1981): 171–82. *Konrad Gross, "The Image of French-Canada in Early English-Canadian Fiction", English Literature of the Dominions: Writings on Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, ed. Konrad Gross and Wolfgang Klooss (Wurzburg: Konighausen & Neuman, 1981), 69–79. *Margaret Anne Doody, "George Eliot and the Eighteenth-Century Novel", Nineteenth-Century Fiction 35 (December 1980): 260–91. *Mary Jane Edwards, "Frances Brooke's Politics and The History of Emily Montague", The Canadian Novel, ed. John Moss, vol 2, Beginnings (Toronto: ECW Press, 1980): 19–27. *Lorraine McMullen, "Frances Brooke's Early Fiction", Canadian Literature 86 (1980): 31–40. *Lorraine McMullen, "The Divided Self", Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal 5 (1980): 53–67. *Linda Shohet, "An Essay on The History of Emily Montague", The Canadian Novel, ed. John Moss, vol. 2, Beginnings (Toronto: ECW Press, 1980), 19–27. *Katherine M. Rogers, "Sensibility and Feminism: The Novels of Frances Brooke", Genre 11, no. 2 (Summer 1978): 159–71. *Lorraine McMullen, "All's Right at Last: An Eighteenth-Century Canadian Novel", Journal of Canadian Fiction 21 (1978): 95–104. *George Woodcock, "Possessing the Land: Notes on Canadian Fiction", The Canadian Imagination: Dimensions of a Literary Culture, ed. David Staines (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1977), 69–96. *James J. Talman and Ruth Talman, "The Canadas 1736–1812", Literary History of Canada, 2nd edition, vol. 1, ed. Carl F. Klinck (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1976), 97–105. *Lorraine McMullen, "Frances Brooke and Memoirs of the Marquis de St. Forlaix", Canadian Notes and Queries 18 (December 1976): 8–9. *William H. New, "The Old Maid: Frances Brooke's Apprentice Feminism", Journal of Canadian Fiction 2, no. 3 (Summer 1973): 9–12. *William H. New, "Frances Brooke's Chequered Gardens", Canadian Literature 52 (Spring 1972): 24–38. *Gwendolyn Needham, "Mrs. Frances Brooke: Dramatic Critic", Theatre Notebook vol. 15 (Winter 1961): 47–55. *Emile Castonguay, "Mrs. Frances Brooke ou la femme de lettres", Cinq Femmes et nous (Québec: Belisle, 1950), 9–57. *Desmond Pacey, "The First Canadian Novel", Dalhousie Review 26 (July 1946): 143–50. *Bertha M. Sterns, "Early English Periodicals for Ladies", PMLA 48 (1933): 38–60. *James R. Foster, "The Abbé Prévost and the English Novel", PMLA 42 (1927): 443–64. *Charles S. Blue, "Canada's First Novelist", Canadian Magazine 58 (November 1921): 3–12. *Thomas Gutherie Marquis, "English-Canadian Literature", Canada and Its Provinces ed. Adam Shortt and Arthur Doughty (Toronto: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1913), 12: 493–589. *Ida Burwash, "An Old-Time Novel", Canadian Magazine 29 (January 1907): 252–56. *James M. Lemoine, "The First Canadian Novelist, 1769", Maple Leaves 7 (1906): 239–45. Notes External links ;Poems *Song: "Her mouth, which a smile" in A Book of Women's Verse *"Ode to Fame" ;Books * * Works by Frances Brooke listed at The Online Books Page *Rebecca Garwood, author biography of Frances Brooke (1724–1789) at www.chawton.org *Selected bibliography: Frances Moore Brooke by Jessica Smith and Paula Backscheider *Digitized Correspondence with Richard Gifford, Houghton Library, Harvard University ;Audio / video * ;About *Frances Brooke at the Canadian Encyclopedia *Brooke, Frances in the Dictionary of National Biography *Moore, Frances (Brooke) in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography *[Frances Brooke (1724-1789) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 Category:English women novelists Category:18th-century English writers Category:18th-century women writers Category:18th-century English novelists Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:English women dramatists and playwrights Category:Disease-related deaths in England Category:1724 births Category:1789 deaths Category:English essayists Category:English translators Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets